OOH’s impact on online sales in FMCG is being “underestimated” by current methodology, new research suggests.
A study from GroupM OOH and the Centre for Economics and Business Research, partnering with Clear Channel, JCDecaux and Global, discovered that OOH had an online sales multiplier of 1.7, meaning that for every £3 spent in store due to OOH, £2 is spent online.
Cosmetics (1.83), health and wellbeing (1.76), clothing (1.76) and personal care (1.75) categories recorded the highest online multiplier figures.
In addition, younger audiences had a higher online multiplier, with an average of 1.81 for 18-34s compared with 1.66 for over-35s.
Tom Jameson, research executive at GroupM OOH, said that existing OOH measurement has historically only looked at in-store sales and this is “underestimating the true return of OOH”, especially since online sales make up more than 40% of FMCG spend.
Previously, in-store sales driven by exposure to an OOH ad were measured using product-level sales data aggregated on to a postcode level and overlaid with geolocation data, with a test-and-control across retailers, regions and base sales.
This methodology could not be applied to online sales, as product sales data was affected by centralised warehouses.
GroupM OOH’s research used a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults for an online survey on a smartphone or tablet to collect data on in-store and online spending habits across a range of FMCG brands. This was then used to create a multiplier and predict future online and in-store sales.
Jameson explained: “We wanted to go beyond simply illustrating OOH’s effectiveness. For retail and FMCG brands, this research highlights how understanding your category’s multiplier can help shape your marketing strategy, enabling you to optimise OOH environments and creative messaging to boost sales — whether that’s through clicks or in bricks-and-mortar stores.”
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